Prevention of Pollution ofthe Sea Act 1990 · 2020 Revised Edition · Part 3 · Prevention of Pollution from Ships
7. Prohibition of discharge of oil and oily mixtures from ships
Feedback & supportSubject to subsection (2) and any regulations made under subsection (4), if any discharge of oil or oily mixture occurs from a Singapore ship into any part of the sea or from any ship into Singapore waters, the master, the owner and the agent of the ship shall each be guilty of an offence and shall each be liable on conviction to a fine of not less than $1,000 and not more than $1 million or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 2 years or to both.
discharge
“discharge”, in relation to harmful substances or effluents containing such substances, means any release howsoever caused from a ship, place or thing and includes any escape, disposal, spilling, leaking, pumping, emitting or emptying but does not include —(a)release of harmful substances directly arising from the exploration, exploitation and associated off‑shore processing of seabed mineral resources; or(b)release of harmful substances for purposes of legitimate scientific research into pollution abatement or control;
Subsection (1) does not apply to the discharge of oil or oily mixture from a ship —
oil
“oil” means petroleum in any form including crude oil, fuel oil, sludge, oil refuse and refined products (other than petrochemicals which are prescribed by regulations as being subject to the provisions of Annex II of the Convention) and, without limiting the foregoing, includes the substances prescribed by regulations as being listed in Appendix I of Annex I of the Convention;
which is necessary for the purpose of securing the safety of a ship or saving life at sea;
if the oil or oily mixture (as the case may be) escaped from the ship in consequence of damage, other than intentional damage, to the ship or its equipment, and all reasonable precautions were taken after the occurrence of the damage or the discovery of the discharge for the purpose of preventing or minimising the escape of the oil or oily mixture, as the case may be; or
in the case of an oily mixture, if the discharge was for the purpose of combating specific pollution incidents in order to minimise the damage from pollution and was approved by the appointed authority and, where the discharge occurred in the jurisdiction of the government of a country other than Singapore, by that government.
For the purposes of subsection (2), damage to a ship or to its equipment is taken to be intentional damage, if the damage arose in circumstances in which the master, the owner or the agent of the ship —
ship
“ship” means a vessel of any type operating in the marine environment and includes hydrofoil boats, air‑cushion vehicles, submersibles, floating craft and fixed or floating platforms;
acted with intent to cause the damage; or
acted recklessly and with knowledge that damage would probably result.
The Authority may, with the approval of the Minister, make regulations to exempt any ship from the operation of subsection (1), either absolutely or subject to any prescribed conditions, and either generally or as respects particular classes of ships, or in relation to particular descriptions of oil or oily mixtures or to the discharge of oil or oily mixtures in prescribed circumstances, or in relation to particular areas of the sea.